Bank of Ireland has just released its annual report and, compared to the gloom coming out of AIB this week, they look relatively positive. Its annual loss was €950m, down from €1.8bn in 2009, and – in what’s becoming a rare event – there was no mention of further redundancies.

Still, from a jobs point of view it’s not looking great. Total headcount fell by 471 throughout 2010, meaning that 2,400 staff have departed since 2008, and this is before the 750 redundancies it announced last year are taken into consideration.

About half this number have so far put their hand up for voluntary redundancy at the bank.

As the table below shows, aside from the exits in it UK operation, the biggest reduction in staff numbers was within its capital markets division, where headcount shrank by 215.

This figure is before the sale of Bank of Ireland Asset Management in January and Bank of Ireland Securities Services in February.

This suggests that either its capital markets division is struggling to keep hold of employees, and that it’s not replacing those who depart, or that it’s an area of the business that the bank is focusing less on.

As well as the disposal of BIAM and BOISS, Bank of Ireland has earmarked Paul Capital Investments – a private equity fund of funds manager in its capital markets arm – for sale, along with its US-based foreign exchange business and its stake in the Irish Credit Bureau, both of which fall into its retail Republic of Ireland division.

It’s not been a good year for BoI’s capital markets division, largely because of losses related to NAMA. It posted an operating profit of €641m, but loan impairments and a €1.1bn loss on the sale of assets to NAMA saw it slip €973m into the red.

A move away from capital markets functions certainly chimes with comments from Michael Noonan that Ireland’s banks will now be more domestically focused and that BoI’s businesses in this area would be “limited” going forward.

Bank of Ireland chief executive Richie Boucher said that it had “moved from survival”, but was still in a period of stabilisation and would focus on capital raising to reach the €5.2bn target outlined in this month’s stress tests.

Costs were reduced by €360m over the last year, largely through smaller staff numbers.